A Moment of Science

Killed by the Sun

By
A Moment of Science Staff

Posted March 26, 2007

The sun may be far away, but its solar flares still present a deadly risk for astronauts going to the moon.

Photo:

Although these Apollo 17 astronauts after safe from the 1972 solar flare, they still went through extensive training before their dangerous journey to space.

Do you ever think about the risks the Apollo astronauts took in the name of science? It’s amazing.

Actually, the astronauts were at risk of something many people don’t know about: the Sun.

On August 7, 1972 a massive solar flare occurred. It didn’t hurt anyone on earth because our magnetic field largely shields us from the Sun’s charged particles, but it would be a different matter if you were standing on the moon. The moon has no magnetic field, and a radiation blast from the Sun would smack you head-on.

A super flare, which is just a very energetic solar flare, was recorded in September of 1859 by astronomer Sir Richard Carrington. Using Carrington’s data, modern astronomer Lawrence Townsend at the University of Tennessee calculated what the effect on astronauts would have been. He found that, had anyone been standing on the moon in 1859, the flare could have killed them.

Luckily for us, the flare that occurred in 1972 fell between Apollo 16 and Apollo 17, so no one got sick. However, if we go back to the moon, or for longer trips, like Mars we had better be prepared for flares!

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